''Path of Exile'' is a FreeToPlay DarkFantasy ActionRPG by the New Zealand-based studio Grinding Gear Games, where you play as the eponymous Exile: one of many convicts (rightly or wrongly) exiled to the remote continent of Wraeclast by the authorities of the outside world. After your ship crashes near the shores of Wraeclast, you are hard-pressed to merely survive in this CrapsackWorld, let alone prosper.

The gameplay and the control scheme is obviously inspired by ''VideoGame/DiabloII'': you control a single character from overhead perspective and engage in massive monster slaughter, occasionally dropping by the newest town to sell loot and pick up/turn in quests. The main difference is the skill system, wherein passive skills form a veritable skill ''forest'' based around three core attributes, while the active skills/spells are stored in upgradable magical gems that can be socketed in virtually every piece of equipment (not unlike Materia in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'').

The game officially launched on October 23, 2013, after extensive closed and later open beta testing. You can download the game client and play for free after registering on [[http://www.pathofexile.com/ the official website]] (the same account is used to log into the game). Although the initial closed-beta crowd-funding campaign is over (having collected over $2.2 million in pledges), you can still support the game by purchasing cosmetic and convenience "upgrades" from [[https://www.pathofexile.com/shop the in-game shop]]. That said, GGG strongly oppose {{Freemium}}, so they are not going to hand out any exclusive gameplay advantages or content to "paying customers" any time soon.

Following the release of the game, GGG have created frequent updates for cosmetics, performance, and gameplay. Major changes are bundled in ''ExpansionPack''s which are a free addition to the game, though you can choose to buy "supporter packs" for exclusive cosmetics.

* ''[[https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/807869 Sacrifice of the Vaal]]'' (released March 5, 2014) explored the history of the first civilization on Wraeclast, including special Vaal dungeons that pop up randomly throughout the game levels which provides the player specialized loot related to the Vaal, and access to their former Queen as a BonusBoss. This expansion also introduced [=PvP=] modes and seasonal Challenge Leagues, temporary game realms allowing players to start characters within a fresh economy alongside new gameplay content.* ''[[https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/985043 Forsaken Masters]]'' (released August 22, 2014) introduced the titular Forsaken Masters, seven [=NPCs=] who were also exiled to Wraeclast but have carved a place for themselves with their unique skills. The Masters offer quests as players travel through the world, and grant access to in-game housing and crafting options.* ''[[https://www.pathofexile.com/theawakening The Awakening]]'' (released July 10, 2015) extended the main story with a long-awaited Act 4, where exiles travelled to the heart of Wraeclast to stop an impending cataclysm of Nightmare.* ''[[http://www.pathofexile.com/ascendancy Ascendancy]]'' (released March 4th, 2016) introduced the [[PrestigeClass Ascendencies]] for all classes, allowing them to further specialize their abilities. In order to unlock these Ascendencies players must traverse the Lord's Labyrinth, a lengthy dungeon filled with environmental traps that must be cleared without dying.* ''[[http://www.pathofexile.com/atlasofworlds Atlas of Worlds]]'' (released September 2, 2016) largely improved on the end-game map experience and introduced the titular Atlas of Worlds, which structured progression though the map content and gave it a backstory involving its mysterious creator, the Shaper. * ''[[https://www.pathofexile.com/oriath The Fall of Oriath]]'' (released August 5, 2017) introduces a massive storyline extension with Act Five situated in the exiles' homeland of Oriath, and Acts 6-10 which revisits the areas of the previous five acts. The Exiles return to Oriath to liberate it from the tyrannical rule of High Templar Avarius, but things take a dark, unexpected turn when the dark god Kitava, freshly reawakened by the death of the Beast, hatches a sinister scheme to consume the souls of all mortal life. Meanwhile, the original gods of Wraeclast are awoken by the death of the Beast and plot to take their vengeance on the mortals who had forgotten them. This streamlines the experience and level progression into a single play-through, incorporating the Cruel and Merciless difficulty levels in the process (Cruel begins after Act 5, Merciless after Act 10). In addition, a new Pantheon system is available that confers swappable passive bonuses for hunting down Wraeclast's enemies and gods.* ''[[http://www.pathofexile.com/war War for the Atlas]]'' (releasing December 8, 2017) adds more content to the Atlas. A new entity called The Elder fights for control over the Shaper's realm, infecting the Atlas with his influence. The player can influence the Shaper's or the Elder's control by clearing a path for them around the Atlas. The expansion adds new maps, bosses, and powerful Shaper and Elder item mods.

----!!Tropes found in the game:

* ActionBomb: ** Various enemies across the game - the first being the Unstable Spawn late in Act 1 - will run at you in an attempt to explode guts and fire all over you. The same ability is seen on a variant of Alira's bandit {{Mooks}} throughout the western forest of Act 2.** The ''Minion Instability'' Keystone causes your Minions to explode upon reaching [[StandardStatusEffects Low Life]].* ActionRPG* AGodAmI: Dominus, Malachai - Pretty much anyone who works with thaumaturgy and lets it get to their head.* AlasPoorVillain: [[spoiler:For all the horrors Piety committed, she does a good job making you feel sorry for her in Act 4.]]* AllCrimesAreEqual: Pretty much ''any'' crime in the Oriathian Empire is punishable by Exile. One Letter of Exile you can read is for a woman exiled solely for ''running a tavern without a license''. [[spoiler:Its eventually revealed that the reason for this is because the main purpose of Exiles is to serve as test subjects in Piety and Dominus' thaumaturgy experiments.]]* AllThereInTheManual: One of the final pre-full release updates added a "Letters of Exile" notice board to Lioneye' Watch, which details how several of the game's [=NPCs=], unique enemies and bosses wound up on Wraeclast.* AlwaysAccurateAttack: The Resolute Strikes passive guarantees you will hit, but you'll no longer deal critical hits. This does not mean enemies with shields and such cannot block your attacks, mind; you simply won't miss them.* AmbiguouslyGay: The ranger, going by some of her battle-quotes. Merveil the Siren creates apparitions in the level before her fight that tempt the player onward. Usually, these apparitions are the opposite gender, but not for the ranger.* AnAdventurerIsYou: Many, ''many'', '''MANY''' variants due to sheer flexibility of the game, but some of the notable ones:** TheArcher: Bows and Wands are the ranged weapons available in this game.** The BlackMage: Uses various ElementalPowers to bring down their enemy. FireIceLightning, take your pick. ** TheMinionMaster: Summoner builds use Zombies, Spectres and/or Skeletons to tank and do damage for them. Summon Raging Spirit build is technically a summoner build, but played more like an offensive spellcaster.** TheTurretMaster: Summons totems to do the attacking for them.** CriticalHitClass: Built to maximize Power Charge generation and by extension, number of Critical Hits they can do and how much damage you deal with them.* AndManGrewProud: A small-scale example, but Wraeclast used to be the heartland of the Empire, with Sarn as the capital. It's implied the thaumaturgical fallout from warring against the Karui and other events is what left Wraeclast with hostile wildlife, rogue elementals, and spontaneously-reanimating corpses.** The Empire isn't the first one to suffer this fate; the Vaal under Atziri collapsed in a similarly spectacular manner.* AntiFrustrationFeatures: When the Ascendancy expansion was first released, each individual character needed to complete the six Trials of Ascendancy to unlock the Labyrinth on that difficulty, which meant lots and lots of repetition for [[{{Altitis}} people who play several characters]]. The Prophecy update later changed it so that unlocking the Labyrinth on one character would open it up for all other characters on the same account and in the same league.* ApocalypticLog: The Karui carvings you can find throughout Act 1 detail the downfall of the Karui after their successful invasion. The etchings found in the crossroads in Act 2 are a more local, [[DrivenToSuicide and absolutely horrifying,]] account of the same cataclysm affecting the citizens of the Empire.* ArcSymbol: In ''Fall of Oriath'', the title screen and many of the new enemies prominently feature a jagged red X. [[spoiler:This is Kitava's symbol.]]* ArcWords: "Nightmare", the significance of which is hinted at but not fully explained until much later on.* ArmorPiercing: Chaos damage bypasses your Energy Shield, making it a threat for those who rely on their Shield. There's two ways to prevent this: Chaos Innoculation gives you complete Chaos damage immunity, but [[PowerAtAPrice reduces your maximum HP to 1]]. Shavaronne's Wrappings prevents Chaos damage from bypassing Energy Shields, but good luck finding or buying one.* ArtificialBrilliance: The AI is savvy enough to aim for your Totems first, should you deploy one. If enemies can't reach you, e.g. if you're on a ledge above them, they'll run away from you so that you can't shoot at them from complete safety.* AscendedMeme: Kuduku, the False God, while normally an underwhelming unique totem enemy, has gathered pagan worship from players as a RandomNumberGod, sacrificing crappy unique items in front of him to appease his favor for six-linking an item. In the Prophecy league, one of the prophecies require you to kill Kuduku who is assisted by Kadaka, the Goddess of Luck, which rewards you with Orbs of Fusing.* AsteroidsMonster: Shield Crab class monsters spawn a Spitter class monster on death. Apparently, the crab is only the carapace, according to the lore. Still doesn't explain how it has fully-working pinciers...** A Rare monster with the "Fractured" modifier will turn into multiple copies of itself (or rather, the same monster type without any mods) when killed. You can also have a map have a mod that makes ''every'' monster Fracture.* BackFromTheBrink: At the beginning of the game, most of the coastline is overrun by the monsters, with only a single settlement remaining besieged from both sides. ItsUpToYou to clear a path to the inner continent.* BadassGrandpa with BadassBeard and BaldOfAwesome: The Templar is visibly the oldest playable character, yet packs some serious punch.* BagOfSharing: Your personal stash is carried over across Acts, and all characters on the same account can access its contents.* BarbarianHero: The Marauder.* BattleInTheRain: The final showdown with Dominus. His [[OneWingedAngel second form]] has a nasty habit of turning the rain to [[RainOfBlood blood]], which deals damage as long as you're standing in it.* BigBad: [[spoiler:High Templar Dominus]] is the instigator of the plot, being responsible for the player character's exile and the revival of thaumaturgical research. But throughout the game there is talk of a "Nightmare", and its physical representation, [[BiggerBad The Beast]]. Talking to Siosa reveals the Vaal knew this being by name. [[spoiler: All it needed was someone to control it...]]** In ''Fall of Oriath'', [[spoiler:High Templar Avarius ''seems'' to be this, only to be replaced by Kitava almost immediately after the former's death.]]* BlackAndGreyMorality: ** While the people/things you fight are undeniably villainous, the player classes aren't exactly virtuous themselves. The Marauder is a BloodKnight who shows little concern for things unrelated to combat, the Ranger is an openly misandristic poacher, the Shadow is an honorable but cold-blooded ProfessionalKiller, the Duelist is an arrogant, narcissistic JerkAss, the Witch is a cannibalistic child murderer, and the Scion murdered her own husband in cold blood ''on their wedding night''. Even the Templar, the most moral of the classes, used to work for TheEmpire, and may have been a former Blackguard. ** Almost every single non-Gemling person in Wraeclast is either a criminal in exile or working for the [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Empire of Oriath]]. Granted TheEmpire is a corrupt theocracy so it's definition of "criminal" is somewhat loose, but there aren't a whole lot of nice people on the continent.* BlackKnight: The Blackguards, mooks of the High Templar.* BlamingTheRailroadedPlayerCharacter:** In the process of exploring the Vaal Ruins, you accidentally break a seal and release the [[EldritchAbomination Vaal Oversoul]], which in turn ushers in TheNightThatNeverEnds. Several characters in that act's town call you out for it, saying that you've destroyed the world with your [[WhatDoesThisButtonDo thoughtless actions]]. That seal is blocking the only path through the ruins, which you have to get through in order to stop [[TheDragon Piety]] and continue the plot.** Bonus points for one character also calling you out for magically poisoning the giant tree whose roots were blocking the ruins' entrance, when simply chopping your way through is not an option (somehow, despite the many and varied bladed weapons you as an exile have access to).* BloodierAndGorier: Enchanted items will occasionally have the attribute "More Gore." There's also a cosmetic microtransaction that will give your player-character bloody footprints, and guarantee messier fights.* BloodKnight: The Duelist; his intro quote states he fights in arenas not for companionship or money, but for the fight.* BodyHorror: ** Grigor, the misshapen NPC in act 3. The monsters in the Lunaris Temple also count. They are all this way because [[spoiler:Piety tried to implant Virtue Gems--the same gems you place in equipment sockets for all of your active skills--in their bodies, likely out of a misguided attempt to construct super-soldiers,]] and look like they walked off the set of Franchise/DeadSpace. This isn't the first time such a process has been undertaken either--Emperor Chitus of the Eternal Empire and his thaumaturgist Malachai dabbled in the process about 250 years before the game's campaign storyline, which resulted in the creation of the Undying enemies you find all over Act 3. The process apparently has a detrimental effect on the subject's sanity; everyone who has undergone it, aside from Grigor [[spoiler:and Lady Dialla, the Gemling Queen, and even she is a CloudCuckooLander at best]] blindly attack you on sight. The lore implies this wasn't always the case--[[spoiler:The implantation of virtue gems seemed to have been common practice in the Eternal Empire among the upper classes, and we know of at least 2 entire legions composed of Gemlings, at least until the Purity Rebellions, but after the cataclysm those who were implanted slowly degenerated into the mad monsters that are the Undying.]]** Act 4 brings us the slave labourers in Highgate mines and the monsters inhabiting The Beast's innards.* BribingYourWayToVictory: ** It exists, but it's heavily downplayed. The only practical advantages you can gain from spending money are extra tabs for your stash, improvements to your existing stash tabs, extra character slots, and extra guild member slots. None of which will provide any sort of in-combat advantage. ** On [[AprilFoolsDay the first day of April]] 2014, Grinding Gear Games decided to "nickel and dime" players into purchasing "wins". Apparently, their definition of "winning" is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w19sqGjmNlY "a firework show"]] and the term "nickel and diming" meant [[ExactWords "charging 15 cents".]] To their success, a lot of people [[https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/872347 paid to win]].** In-universe example: The biggest contributing factor to Chitus passing the Labyrinth and becoming emperor was because he came from the richest family in the Empire and bought every advantage he could.* BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu: The end of Act 5. [[spoiler:After weakening Kitava's vessel with the Sign of Purity and beating on him the old fashioned way for a bit, Kitava finally wises up and destroys the Sign. Sin saves you from being obliterated on the spot, but you're left with a "[[StealthPun cruel]] affliction" that permanently lowers your elemental and chaos resistance.]]* TheBrute: Both Hillock, the first boss of the game, and Brutus, the mid-Act I boss. Act III has the optional boss Kole, who uses Brutus' abilities and doubles as ThatOneBoss for many people, particularly in the permanent death hardcore leagues.* BullfightBoss: A number of bosses have charge or slam attacks that are broadly telegraphed but will ruin you if you don't avoid them, such as Brutus, Kole, Vaal Oversoul, and Voll.* CastFromHitPoints: The BloodMagic passive skill removes your mana and uses your life as your mana instead. Also comes in Skill Gem flavor, but that just means the skill costs HP instead of mana.** The Righteous Fire spell will deal 90% of the caster's max health per second, ending when they reach 1 HP, in exchange for dealing 40% of it in damage to any nearby enemies. The Vaal variant of the spell will instead instantly remove all remaining health and energy shields (down to 1, again) in exchange for dealing as much damage.* ChargedAttack: Vaal Skill Gems require the user to kill a certain number of enemies in their current zone before they can be used in exchange for substantially greater effects (Spark sends out 3 wandering jolts of lightning, Vaal Spark sends out ''100''). Flameblast is a hold-to-charge variety, increasing in damage and area (up to a cap) the longer it is cast before detonating. Additionally, some attacks such as Incinerate or Reave gain adidtional damage/effects the longer you can them consecutively.* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Enemies and items use the same color scheme. White is normal and has only the basic properties for the type of item or enemy, blue has one or two random properties, yellow [[NominalImportance has a randomized name]] and three to six random properties, and dark orange is unique, with a defined name and list of traits.* ColorCodedItemTiers: The game has a color coding similar to the ''Diablo'' series: regular items are white, magical ones are blue, rares are yellow, and uniques are golden. Quest items are green but they are not equippable. Some players and even the wiki have been known to refer simply to white, blue, gold and orange items.* CombatTentacles: Whipping Miscreations and Tentacle Miscreations, the latter of which uses them as [[OrganicTechnology Organitek]] machineguns. [[spoiler:Malachai]] also uses them.* CommonplaceRare: Fishing Rods are weak but extremely rare weapons that can only drop by wearing a specific unique tricorne. Another equally rare item is the bait, the elusive Albino Rhoa Feather from a rare albino rhoa. It is said that these items are required to fish, but very few know how to fish as the developers have relentlessly silenced anyone who would attempt to disclose fishing secrets ([[JokeItem supposedly]]).* CrapsackWorld: Justified in that you're on a segment of the wider world horrible enough that the legitimate authorities decided it was a good place to put criminals too dangerous to otherwise hold. The rest of the planet is implied to be a bit better, though there are nasty bits-the Nazi alikes, for one.* CreatorCameo: Once in a blue moon, a lucky player may encounter the Forsaken Master fisher, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kF1almngzo Krillson of Winding Pier fame]]. He's voiced by Chris Wilson of Grinding Gear Games, the developer of Path of Exile. How to complete his mission is another story.* CreatorProvincialism: As one might expect from a New Zealand-based developer, the game's world takes a lot of cues from the history of the Oceania region; the titular practice of Exile evokes the deportation of criminals to Australia, and the Karui are a clear FantasyCounterpartCulture for the Maori.* CripplingOverspecialization: Because of the huge skill tree, it is very easy to fall into this category or [[MasterOfNone its opposite extreme]].* CoolDown: Some active abilities have cooldowns in addition to consuming mana. The cooldowns of mine-type abilities function slightly differently: preparing a mine (happens without active player participation) takes time and you can only carry a small number of them around, but launching them has no cooldown.* CorruptChurch: The primary enemies of the game are an expeditionary force from a theocratic-and ''very'' nasty-[[TheEmpire empire]] lead by a High Templar.** For clarity, Oriath was an island colony of the Eternal Empire. It is traditionally ruled by a High Templar. It gets confusing because the last Emperor of the Eternal Empire was also the High Templar of Oriath before he was crowned.* DarkFantasy* DarkIsNotEvil: A recurring theme.** Almost every summon is some variation on TheUndead, making most Summoners a variation on the {{Necromancer}}.** The Beast is a monstrous EldritchAbomination the size of a mountain and responsible for the legions of undead roaming Wraeclast and the reality-warping magical corruption across the continent. [[spoiler: It's also completely benevolent and was never made to be hostile; in fact it was made to protect humanity by suppressing the gods. It wasn't until Malachi took it over that the Beast's powers were turned to horrific evil]].** [[spoiler: Sin]] himself is a jet-black WingedHumanoid who looks like a nightmarish demonic shadow. He's also probably the single most powerful force for good in the entire setting.* DeathCourse: The Labyrinth is one giant series of zones filled with traps, originally made as a way to choose a new emperor.* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: Being killed will only ever set you back to the town or a "checkpoint" (usually the area entrance) losing none of your items or, until after Act 2, experience. Once Act 3 hits, you suffer a 5% experience penalty every death, but even that will never remove levels. On certain bosses, even your progress in the fight wont reset because your last checkpoint was in the boss arena, or close enough that any number of speed boosting items gets you back to it before they have a chance to heal. The only other consequence of death is on Hardcore mode, where dying once removes that character from Hardcore permanently, though ''even then'' nothing stops you from just continuing on in standard mode, with all the bonus items Hardcore gave you up to that point.* DefectorFromDecadence: The Templar is all but stated to have been a former Blackguard. In fact, judging from his comments after defeating General Gravicius, he was relatively high up/well-connected in the religious hierarchy as well.* DeflectorShield: Several armors have an Energy Shield stat, which grants you one of these.* DemonicPossession: In ''Fall of Oriath'', [[spoiler:the gods do this in order to manifest themselves on the physical plane. Innocence uses Avarius' corpse, the Brine King uses Nessa, Ralakesh uses Greust, and Kitava uses the giant statue seen on the title screen.]]* DesignItYourselfEquipment: Crafting in the game is randomized just like enemy drops, but allows for a great flexibility. Using the orbs, you can upgrade items of any rarity to higher tiers, give magical and rare items additional properties, completely respec an item, change the number of gem slots or the gem slot connectors on it, etc. There are Masters that will allow you to craft enchantments and even manipulate the type of enchantments you can roll.* DevelopersForesight: Some quests may be done out of sequence (finding the Quest Item before actually getting the quest from the QuestGiver, for instance). In this case, the quest giver and related [=NPCs=] will say different things regarding the quest status.* DifficultySpike: ** The Vaal Oversoul in Act 2, and then the Lunaris Temple in Act 3, both considerably step up the difficulty from what came before. Then you get to the Scepter of God, where even normal enemies start gaining powerful effects like range-nullifying bubble shields. Of particular note is the level boss who turns the screen into Lightning Trap BulletHell. And, of course, Dominus himself is no pushover.** Act 4 pretty much turns the difficulty curve into a difficulty wall, with both Daresso's Dream and Kaom's Dream throwing swarms of particularly nasty enemies at you, and every boss fight - particularly [[LightningBruiser Daresso]] - is likely to either [[FinalDeath bring your hardcore run to an early end]] or simply cause your death count to skyrocket.** If you enter the Labyrinth right after you unlock it, then you are guaranteed to be underleveled for it (without twinking). The game isn't going to hand over those Ascendency Points and Enchantments that easily.** Tier 16 maps are not meant for any regular builds to breeze through. The Guardians have far more damage and life even compared to Tier 15 bosses and even top tier builds can have trouble with them, especially if the map mods are not in their favor or if it relies on a mechanics that a boss may be immune to.** Hitting Act 5 in ''Fall of Oriath'' sends the difficulty skyrocketing; rare enemies can kill you in a few seconds if you're not on your toes, unique enemies become extremely deadly cases of BossInMooksClothing, and ''actual'' bosses become BulletHell titans with massive health pools and incredible damage output that can kill even a well-built end-game character in an instant.* DragonInChief: While High Templar Dominus is clearly marked as the BigBad, Piety of Theopolis is the one who does most of the Empire's legwork for the majority of the game. * DualWielding: All one-handed weapons can be dual wielded, including two different types, though this is not advised due to spreading of passives. You also can't dual wield a melee and ranged weapon together.* DurableDeathtrap: Mostly played straight by the Labyrinth - the many ([[EverythingTryingToKillYou many, many]]) traps you run across are still every bit as deadly now as they were when the labyrinth was first built. Here and there, though, you'll come across wrecked traps, or fallen rubble blocking off tracks.* EasilyForgiven: [[spoiler: Captain Fairgraves]] comes back in Act 3 as a ghost chained to an anchor, and begs your forgiveness for trying to murder you. Then asks you to fetch him a magic decanter and a poisonous fruit.* EnemyMine: [[spoiler:Piety]] helps the player in the final encounter in Act 4* ExactWords: The skill Herald of Thunder, unlike other lightning skills, cannot shock enemies. The unique equipment Three Dragons causes lightning damage to chill or freeze enemies instead of shocking them. This includes Herald of Thunder, since the skill doesn't say it can't chill or freeze.* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Defied by Kraityn, one of the Bandit Lords. According to his Letter of Exile, he killed his mother... for money.* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Thanks to a letter found lying in his camp base, we learn that Captain Arteri, the Black Knight mini-boss defending the pass between Western Forest and Prisoner Gate, is Piety's lover.* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: The Vastari Deserts in Act 9 are full of raptor-like creatures called Rhex. There are Maraketh archers using them as ''mounted cavalry''.* EvilIsVisceral: Once the the player enters the interior of [[spoiler: The Beast]] in Act 4, [[spoiler: this trope hits in full force. If Wraeclast has a hell, [[BloodyBowelsOfHell its bowels are quite bloody.]] For bonus points, the final boss's chamber features giant, bleeding hearts.]]* ExpospeakGag: A meta one. One of the enemies you can encounter in Act 2 is the "Plummeting Ursa," a fanged koala-like monster that will llook [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drop_bear oddly familiar to people who know Australian folklore.]]* FanDisservice: ** Lunaris Temple has some topless women inside - but [[spoiler: they're either in the form of ''VideoGame/DeadSpace''-like monsters, or cadavers on operating tables missing half their head and shoulders]].** The Whipping Miscrereation concept art is shown during the credits. They're women wearing nothing more than a loincloth and some twine. Their left sides are covered in crystal growths and their right arms are turned into a six-foot long thorny tentacle** Doedre Darktongue is, if you look at the art on her divination card or Steam trading card, a well-armored thin blonde witch, probably pretty good-looking. When you fight her, she's naked... and distorted into a sagging, legless purple meatball with tentacle hair who vomits blood at you.* FantasyCounterpartCulture: The ProudWarriorRace Karui are a very obvious one for the Maori. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] as the game originates from New Zealand.** The Awakening expansion adds the an in-game appearance of the Maraketh, a Japanese-flavored culture, only with a strong matriarchal bent.* FieldOfBlades: The site of Marceus Lioneye's last stand against the Karui hordes features his tattered standard blowing in the wind amidst a textbook example of this trope.%%* FireIceLightning* FlashStep: Flame Dash is a short-range teleport that hits enemies you move through with fire damage and leaves burning ground in its path. Flicker Strike teleports you right in front of an enemy to hit with your melee weapon.* {{Foreshadowing}}: Someone, possibly Malachai, left a note on the map device in the Eternal Laboratory, overjoyed over its completion. At the time they wrote it, they were about to explore the "Dreamlands" inside. They have, quite obviously, not returned. [[OhCrap This is the same map device players run end game content, including the revived Queen Atziri, on.]] With the release of Act 4, this is confirmed: [[spoiler:The Nightmare ends up being the force responsible for pretty much everything going wrong in Wraeclast. Towards the end, its revealed that the Nightmare is in fact Malachai of the Eternal Empire, who transformed himself into a monster in order to bring his own twisted version of "purity" to the world.]]** [[spoiler:If you look carefully right after defeating Piety in the Lunaris Temple, you'll see a strange portal form that sucks her body into it. Act 4 reveals that this was Malachai pulling her into the Beast so he could mutate and brainwash her for his own ends.]]* FriendlyGhost: In the Library of Sarn in Act 3, the player comes across a Karui ghost named Siosa Foaga, the only member of Sarn's intelligentsia not to lose their marbles. He can provide a sidequest and and InfoDump reguarding the Vaal, the fall of the Eternal Empire and to an extent, Nightmare itself.* FromNobodyToNightmare: ** It's mentioned at one point that Piety used to be a prostitute to pay for her magical studies. She's since found a better paycheck as one of Dominus' CoDragons, and TheDreaded by Wraeclast's inhabitants.** The Exile is noted to be this as well by some characters.* {{Gorn}}: The depths of the Lunaris Temple almost rival the [[VideoGame/{{Diablo}} Durance of Hate]] in bloodiness, with drainage pipes running completely red and pools full of blood, not to mention all the torture equipment, corpses impaled on stakes, and piles on piles of emaciated dead bodies. Even worse, people can be seen ''writhing'' inside the pools of blood.* GameplayAndStorySegregation: [[PlayingWithATrope Zig-zagged]]. On one hand, the game's whole skill system is based on socketing "skill gems" into gear, the gems giving characters all the superhuman abilities (shooting fireballs, explosive arrows, ability to teleport-and-stab etc.), and the origin of those gems and their side-effects are pretty much the main plot. On the other hand, Nessa in Act 1 says she has no medicines for the ill and wounded, all the while selling a number of health restoring flasks.* GraffitiOfTheResistance: The third act of the game is set in Sarn, the capital of an empire that was overthrown shortly before the cataclysm that ruined Wraeclast. A lot of areas (especially places like the slums, the docks, and the warehouse district) have graffiti urging the workers to rise up against the emperor. It is implied that this was the work of Victario, a popular poet and member of the Purity Rebellion.* GroundPunch: Ground Slam is a Strength-based active ability, sending out a wave of cracks that damages enemies and reduces the damage threshold needed to cause hitstun.** Using the skill Ice Crash while unarmed also qualifies, as your character literally punches the ground to make a bunch of ice explosions appear.* GuysSmashGirlsShoot: All three Strength- and thus melee-oriented characters are male, while the two females are a SquishyWizard and an archer. Still, since the skill tree allows any class to be anything, it just takes more skill points to get to the skills the character was not intended to use.** That said, rapiers and bucklers are purely Dexterity-based, so the Ranger can avert this if you decide to have her wield those instead of a bow. It's not entirely recommended due to the nature of Evasion in this game, but it's certainly possible especially since the skill tree path you'll go down offers additional health and evasion.** Subverted with the SixthRanger class Scion; she starts in the exact center of the skill tree with perfectly balanced stats, allowing her to do any build with ease.** The Karui culture forbids its men to use any kind of missile weapon. King Kaom's victory over Marceus Lioneye came by realizing that this prohibition didn't apply to women, surprising Lioneye by instituting the second half of this trope.* HandOrObjectUnderwear: Yeena, the magic accessories saleswoman from Act 2.* HellIsThatNoise: Several areas and enemies make plenty of creepy sounds, but special mention goes to a certain cave ambiance, which features incomprehensible whispering and a realistic cat's cry.* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Nessa warns the player of this at the end of Act 1.-->'''Nessa''': But please, keep one thing in mind for me. What have you become when even nightmares fear you?* HighlyConspicuousUniform: Kinda. The Duelist wears a bright-{{red shirt}} under the armor, as if tempting the enemy to try and hit him. Given how his defenses are based on Evasion, this is not as suicidal as it seems...* HollywoodDarkness: At a certain point in the game, a magical darkness descends upon the world. Said darkness is represented by a ghastly bluish tint. Also swirling eldritch shadows in the sky. * IdiosyncraticDifficultyLevels: From easier to harder: Normal, Cruel, Merciless.* InfantImmortality: Averted in the Witch's backstory. Her house was burnt down, and instead of killing the people who did it, she killed their children.* InjuredVulnerability: Weapons or skills with the "Culling Strikes" property will instantly kill any enemy that is at Low Life (less than 10% of their max health). Comes in handy against Rare or Unique monsters, for whom 10% of their health is still a lot of damage.* {{Jerkass}}: The Duelist, who was exiled because he thought a noble had insulted him, and promptly stabbed said noble in the gut in return. Also the Witch [[UpToEleven to an even greater degree]]- her house ''was'' burnt down, most likely as part of an [[BurnTheWitch attempt to kill her]], but instead of killing her attackers she killed their children.** Greust in Act 2. [[spoiler:Even after you save his tribe from the Bandit Lords ''and'' the Vaal Oversoul, the best he gives you is a ''very'' grudging thanks and a warning that he's watching you.]]* KingmakerScenario: A sidequest in Act 9 turns into one of these: [[spoiler:you're sent to rescue the Maraketh's leader, Oyun, from rebels led by her former lieutenant. [[PlotlineDeath You fail to save her]], but recover her proof of leadership, and are left deciding whether Oyun should be succeeded by the traditionalist Irasha or the progressive-but-eccentric Tasuni. Though as of this writing, your choice doesn't seem to affect anything but some dialogue]].* LeakedExperience: Each member of the party receives a portion of the XP for every enemy killed on the location, even if they don't actively participate in the fighting.* LightIsNotGood: Piety, the villain for a large portion of the game. She looks like a paladin from a HighFantasy universe...who is actually an utterly amoral [[EvilSorcerer Evil Sorceress]] who is a leader this world's equivalent to the SS.* LimitedUseMagicalDevice: ''Path of Exile'' follows the ''VideoGame/DiabloII'' model and has only two types of scrolls, Scroll of Wisdom (Identify) and Portal Scroll, but with a few twists. First, both types serve as PracticalCurrency, since in-game vendors don't accept gold as payment. Secondly, early game enemies rarely drop whole Scrolls of Wisdom, so you'll have to put them together from five Scroll Fragments. Lastly, you can skip Portal Scrolls entirely if you find the colorless Portal gem, which takes up one active skill slot but frees up some inventory space.* LiterallyShatteredLives: Killing a frozen enemy may cause them to shatter.* LovecraftianSuperpower: Anyone "blessed" by Nightmare, via human experimentation or otherwise, gains incredible abilities and particularly nasty BodyHorror. Double subverted with Shavronne, who was obsessed with beauty - She got all the superpowers and none of the BodyHorror, but then inflicted it on herself mechanically to make herself 'perfect.'* LudicrousGibs: There are some skill which, if you kill enemies with them, result into the enemies exploding into bloody chunks.* MadDoctor: Malichai, Doryani, Piety, Shavronne, and Maligaro all have an enthusiasm for human experimentation and a disdain for such things as medical ethics and informed consent. You actually encounter Piety in the Prison and the Chamber of Sins because she is trying to study the work of the latter two.* MagicKnight: All characters share the same skill tree, but different classes start in different areas; so it's completely possible to teach your witch to [[Creator/{{Tobuscus}} swing your sword-sword]]; or your marauder to chuck fireballs and thunderbolts. The latter is even easier, since anybody can use any skill gem. Templars, particularly the Inquisitor [[PrestigeClass Ascendancy]], are intended for this sort of play-style - in theory, anyways.* MagikarpPower: ** Sticking with a basic spell and laying on Support gems and passives can turn [[ComMons that skill gem you find on the beach at level one]] into a powerhouse able to OneHitKill certain enemies, even through energy shields and resistances.** Unique items with bonuses that scale based on attributes, such as ''The Whispering Ice'' start out fairly weak but can be some of the strongest items in the game with the proper build.* MarathonLevel: The Lord's Labyrinth must be fully completed in one run - there are no waypoints, and dying or portaling out forces you to start from the beginning.* MasterOfNone: Another easy trap to fall into when designing your character.** In earlier versions, some players considered the Duelist as a MasterOfNone, as he is well-rounded in physical combat but not as hard-hitting or tanky as the Marauder, less efficient in ranged combat than the Ranger, not nearly as effective with crits as the Shadow, and ultimately not as versatile as the Scion. A few skill tree rebalancing has fixed his inefficiencies, fortunately, and he's gained a few strong niches with Ascendancy Classes, such as block specialty and permanent Fortify.** In more recent times, the Scion fell under this problem since Ascendancy. Ascendancy classes allowed every other class to focus on their specialty and access to powerful passives, but the Scion's only Ascendancy class, the Ascendant, whose notable passives give a little bit of everything from another Ascendancy class, but not the best parts of them. They also got the short end of the stick when Endgame Labyrinth was introduced. Every other class got to pick up another major passive, and while Ascendants don't have to sacrifice an Ascendancy class passive for a second skill tree starting point, they are still limited to two of them.* MetalSlime: As of ''The Awakening'', sometimes you may run into ghosts named "Tormented (something)". These ghosts tend to flee on sight while buffing other enemies they pass by, and if not defeated quickly they will flee. As they are considered Unique enemies based on their names' color, they tend to drop good stuffs. If you let it possess a rare monster, it can drop even better stuff.** Essence league's essence-bearing rare monsters are tough to kill even by rare monster standards and have to be found and specifically released to fight them.* MoreCriminalsThanTargets: In Act 2, the Forest Encampment is supposedly being preyed upon and harassed by the three bandit lords. Each of them leads a gang of at least a hundred or so. The Forest Encampment has five named characters (and one of them is only brought to town partway through the Act) and a few extras. And it's not like there are many travelers for the bandits to prey upon, since Piety blocked off the roads and the forest is swarming with homicidal wildlife. However, these groups are also unaffiliated with the others, so it's likely a 3-way battle for control as well.* MortalityPhobia: Brutus the Warden let a bunch of necromancers subject himself to various experiments in an attempt to become immortal. Far from achieving it, said experiments merely turned him into a mindless monster. Many of the most notorious thaumuturgist's ultimate goal was to achieve immortality, including Malachai. Inverted with the Witch, whom several characters note seems to have something of a fetish for death.* MythologyGag: Given the game's status as a spiritual successor to ''VideoGame/DiabloII'', several areas and enemies will look familiar. ** The Cannibal enemies of Act I release their spirit when they die; similar to the Corrupt Rogue enemies of ''Diablo II''.** ''Path of Exile'' has its own Den of Evil (an early dungeon in ''Diablo II'''s first area) in the form of the Fetid Pool, with an NPC's quest requiring that you completely cleanse it of enemies. Both areas even have a type of enemy that will resurrect fallen allies. ** Touching the Ancient Seal in the Vaal Ruins of Act II causes a magical darkness to fall on the entire area, reminiscent of the Tainted Sun quest.** The Durance of Hate, Mephisto's dungeon in Act III, features a pool of blood. The Lunaris Temple, also in Act III, has more than a few. ** The fiery lakes, houses and skull mounds in Kaom's Fortress resemble the River of Flame and Chaos Sanctuary areas.* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Brutus, Lord Incarcerator, The Vaal Oversoul, The Chamber of Sins. Honorable mentions to the unique monsters Kadavrus the Defiler and Fleshrend, Grand Inquisitor.* ANaziByAnyOtherName: Piety and her master, Dominus. Let's count the ways: Dictatorial rule and suppression of dissent, check. Soldiers in [[PuttingOnTheReich intimidating black uniforms]], check. Horrific experiments on human subjects, check. Lots and lots of [[ColdBloodedTorture cold blooded torture]], check. Attempts to create a master race and/or super soldiers, check. Implied goal of re-creating an 'eternal empire', check. Piles of emaciated corpses eerily reminiscent of those found in concentration camps, check. Did we forget anything?** The design and uniforms of the Oriath Templars [[https://p7p4m6s5.ssl.hwcdn.net/public/news/08-02-2017/ArtbookPage1.jpg don't even attempt to be subtle]].** The Fall of Oriath expansion features red banners with the black imperial emblem in a white circle in the middle, as well as that same emblem inside a wreath clutched by an eagle with outstretched wings, drawn in an angular style clearly inspired by the iconography of the Third Reich. As in, it takes side-by-side comparison to find the differences.* NecessaryDrawback: ** A central concept of the game. Most of the high-end Passive skills (called 'Keystone Passives') have a drawback to balance their advantages. You can get perfect accuracy at the cost of unable to deal CriticalHit, immunity to stun at the cost of not being able to evade attacks, immunity to [[ArmorPiercing Chaos damage]] at the cost of having your maximum HP reduced to 1, etc., etc., etc... In fact, there's only 4 such passives[[note]]Conduit, Iron Grip, Pain Attunement, Phase Acrobatics[[/note]] without any drawbacks, and one of them requires you to take a passive that reduces your Armor and Evasion by 50%, while another does absolutely nothing unless you are at ~35% health. ** This extends even to Unique items, where many Uniques tend to have drawbacks in exchange for their unique attributes. Entire builds have been built around these items to provide truly unique playing experience.* TheNecromancer: Every summon skill is based in necromancy. Several skills are based around making your zombies, spectres, and skeletons stronger, including a [[PowerAtAPrice Keystone Passive]] that transfers your [[DeflectorShield energy shield]] buffs to them.* {{Nerf}}: ''The Awakening'' patch brought a few very significant nerfs: Life/Mana Leech was significantly reduced and requires passives to increase its normally poor leech rate (with only instances of leech stacking when hitting multiple enemies to compensate). The Reduced Mana support gem was changed to not lower Mana Reservation, reducing the number of auras a player can have overall (Enlighten was changed to lower Mana Costs including Reservation, but at a much lower percentage regardless), and Multiple Projectile gems no longer stacking on the same attack ("shotgunning"), making those gems less essential for projectile skills. Blood Rage was also changed to not guarantee generating a Frenzy Charge on kill, which was a major setback to Flicker Strike builds.** For ''Fall of Oriath'', damage-over-time effects that scaled with damage (Ignite, Poison, Bleed) had to be reworked from the ground up to remove double dipping abuse. Previously, these effects scaled off of the ''final'' damage of the hit that applied it, so it caused them to not only scale off of modifiers that normally wouldn't affect it (for example, if you increase the area damage of an AoE skill, the DoT also indirectly increases off of it), if a modifier applies to both the hit and the DoT, the DoT would gain increased damage ''on top'' of the increased damage of the hit, which meant its damage increased twofold. Now these effects are classified as "Ailments", which scale off only from the base damage of the hit (before any damage modifiers are applied) and have its own category for Ailment damage modifiers and critical strike multiplier.** The most recent GGG Forums Manifesto commentary on Patch 3.1 is titled "Path of Nerfs", written by GGG's lead developer. It's almost as though the company's own vision of the game meta [[https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2035872/page/1 has intentionally become about boom or bust gameplay patching]]...* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler:In Act II, the only way to reach the exit of a plot-critical underground passage is to trigger an altar. It makes darkness fall on the land and releases a monster which is the Act II final boss.]]** "The Fall of Oriath" expansion has this two fold, stinging even more since the actions that cause them were entirely heroic. [[spoiler:First, killing Dominus is revealed to have engulfed Oriath in chaos as a brutal war wages between the revolting Karui slaves and the legions of the new High Templar, with the city's innocent civilians caught in the middle. Second, the deaths of Malachai and the Beast end up causing the original gods of Wraeclast to return, and it quickly becomes clear that they are ''not'' friendly.]]** Act 9 reveals that [[spoiler:when the Exile killed Malachai and subsequently the Beast, its blood began to flow into the Aqueduct, severely damaging Highgate's ecosystem.]]** ''Fall of Oriath'' also reveals that this was the result of [[spoiler: Sin creating the Beast. He intended the Beast to simply suppress the gods, but he also designed the Beast to be gentle and to not have any ambition or aggression. As a result, it was entirely powerless to stop an ambitious ''human'' from breaching inside it and taking over it's body, and using its RealityWarper powers to corrupt Wraeclast]]. * NightOfTheLivingMooks: [[RedShirtArmy Your mooks, by the way.]] There are also Necromancer enemies who send undead at you.* NoHarmRequirement: The Master Assassin's missions will usually impose these sorts of restrictions on you - such as killing a boss enemy while keeping at least one of their guards alive or wiping out the boss's guards without killing the boss themselves. Note the "killing" part - you can bring them down to the very brink of CriticalExistenceFailure [[ExactWords without failing the mission]].* NothingIsScarier: The Warden's Quarters are completely devoid of enemies... right up to when you run into [[TheBrute Brutus]].* NotTheIntendedUse: The "Offering" skills (Flesh Offering, Bone Offering, and Spirit Offering) destroy enemy corpses to temporarily buff any minions you might have. Even if your chosen build doesn't make use of minions, they're quite handy on [[MookMedic Necromancer]] heavy maps, to ensure that what you kill ''stays'' that way.* OneHitPointWonder: The player, if they decide to take the Chaos Innoculation passive skill, which sets their health to 1 and makes them immune to the only damage type that can bypass energy shields. Meaning that if their energy shield is ever depleted, they die in one hit to anything. They can combine this with Eldritch Battery, which causes energy shield to protect mana instead of life, fulling becoming this trope (they shouldn't, but they ''can'').* PenalColony: The entire continent of Wraeclast. What do you mean, it's not inspired by the LandDownUnder?* PlagueDoctor: One can get the outfit; Waxed Jacket/Garb armor and Plague Mask hat.* PlayerParty: You can complete the game on your own but you can also form parties with up to five other players. Doing so increases difficulty but also rewards you with more XP and better loot.* PowerCrystal: Skill gems.* PracticalCurrency: The loot you sell is traded for Scrolls of Wisdom (identification) or various Orbs that are used to improve your equipment. This actually makes selling regular (non-magical) loot sensible, since you get scrolls to identify your magical loot. Or you can just sell Orbs for scrolls.* PrestigeClass: ** The Scion is the first class to be introduced that requires playing through most of the campaign with a basic class to unlock her.** The Ascendancy expansion adds Ascendancy Classes, giving each class a choice of three sets (or just one big set for the Scion) of powerful passive skills to suit their specialties, and even within its own small tree there are multiple options to choose from. For example, the Slayer class for Duelists are generally suited for two-handers, but its second-tier skills consist of: extra damage vs. rare enemies and bosses plus heal from overkill damage, massive bonuses to stun against enemies at full or low life, life leech persisting at full health and stun immunity while leeching life, and passive splash damage.* {{Pun}}: The Arcmage is not TheArchmage, but an enemy who casts [[ShockAndAwe Arc]].* RageAgainstTheHeavens: The wood etchings in Act 2 tell the story of a village woman losing her family to [[ZombieApocalypse The Cataclysm.]] As her husband and daughters [[AdultFear are turned to zombies]] and actively hunt her, she first seeks solace in the Moon, thought to be a manifestation of God, then she seeks shelter in a temple, and then declares that God has forsaken them and she shall "rejoin her family..."* RainOfArrows: The [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Rain of Arrows]] skills does exactly what you would expect it to do. Blast Rain also does this, but fires a barrage of explosive arrows instead.* RandomEffectSpell: Wild Strikes is an active skill that delivers an attack with not only a random element, but a very different effect based on the element: Fire creates an explosion, Cold releases a wave, and Lightning releases an arcing bolt.* RandomlyGeneratedLevels: ** Not only are they random but each location rearranges itself (respawning all enemies) 8 to 16 minutes after you have left it. Thankfully, the general orientation of the maps (the positions of the exits and waypoints relative to the map center and edges) is always roughly the same, which makes finding one's bearings much easier.** The game also has endgame maps which are treated like any other item, complete with random attributes and quality ratings. Using one will take you to a map with special challenges and a chance for better rewards. * RandomlyGeneratedLoot: Follows the ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}'' model of basic templates with numerous prefixes and suffixes denoting special enchantments, plus multiple tiers of rarity/power.* {{Reconstruction}}: Of the HackAndSlash. Grinding Gear Games challenged some fundamental notions underlying ''Diablo''-like games to create a new take on the sub-genre that is both familiar and incredibly fresh. Some mainstays like money have been done away with entirely, while other like stats, skill trees, active skills have been smashed into a million pieces and put back together in interesting new forms.* RegeneratingShieldStaticHealth: Unlike mana, health does not regenerate by itself (without regenerating items or specific passives), but the energy shield, added on top of health by various armors, does. This is the preferred option of magic-heavy classes, since the shields are tied to the Intelligence score. Fittingly, the energy shield only regenerates after not taking damage for a time, so if you want it to come back you have to be smart about avoiding combat.* ReligionIsMagic: Chitus' uncle Cadiro, despite being centuries old, still remains after "striking a deal" with the ancient Azmerian god of souls and treasure, Prospero. It's also implied this is the secret to Zerphi's youth, who Atziri tried to copy through another means [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt disastrously]], was worshiping a god of death. Might also apply to Izaro as well.** New story from ''The Fall of Oriath'' confirms this: turns out the Beast that you've slain in Act 4 gained its power from devouring the old gods, and all thaumuturgy derived its power from the Beast. The Pantheon system lets you slay these gods and take them for yourself in the form of passive bonuses.* {{Retcon}}: Zana plays a major role for the ''Atlas of Worlds'' expansion, and her backstory was changed with it. Pre-Atlas, Zana's backstory was that her father, a sea captain, discovered her talents for cartography at a young age and raised her to hone her talents, and Zana discovered the nature of Maps after her exile. Her new backstory is that she lost both her parents at a young age and studied her father's research on maps before heading off to Wraeclast on her own accord to discover the secrets of his research. She also lost her [[UnexplainedAccent thick, Russian accent]].* RoyallyScrewedUp: Izaro comes from a long line of RoyalInbreeding, which might explain why he thought the Labyrinth was a good idea (not to mention his impotente). One of the member of his lineage was a cannibal. To celebrate the opening of the Labyrinth he also had the spine of its first victim gilded and made into a sceptre. Played with in that he doesn't seem to have been a ''bad'' emperor - his intentions were noble, crazy as he may have been.* RuleOfThree: The game system runs on it. There are three character attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence), three core classes (Marauder, Ranger, Witch), three mixed ones (Duelist, Templar, Shadow), three types of defense (armor, evasion, energy shields) three colors of ability gems (red, green, blue), etc.* RummageSaleReject: What any given [[AnimatedArmor Animated Guardian]] will almost inevitably end up looking like. It's true that you could invest the time into getting your guardian a decent rare set, but they're incredibly fragile even with good armor, so it's usually more sensical to just give them a decent magic weapon you don't need and then whatever's lying around for the remainder of their equipment. Players playing solo self-found characters will also inevitably look like this.* SceneryGorn: The whole third Act is set in the ruined city of Sarn.* SceneryPorn: At the same time the Solaris Temple is actually rather pretty with its marble flooring, red carpets, and rich furnishings. It helps that [[AnimateInanimateObject none of the enemies]] [[LivingStatue there can bleed]].* [[SkillScoresAndPerks Skill Forest]]: With over 1300 nodes available to all classes, it's not so much a "skill tree" as "[[LogicalExtreme skill]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pando_%28tree%29 Pando]]".* SkillPointReset: It is possible to reset some of the points allocated to passive skills, either by completing quests or using an Orb of Regret, which is a currency item. Plus the occasional resets that come with major patches.* ShootTheBuilder: {{Implied|Trope}} - in the Labyrinth, you can encounter packs of generic skeletons called "Undead Engineers", suggesting that a good number of people involved in building the Labyrinth were killed and left there to protect Izaro's secrets. There's also the unique item Xirgil's Crank, which has a flavor text which Xirgil the trapmaker says he knew how the Labyrinth's traps worked.* ShoutOut: Quite a few can be found among the unique items.** [[http://pathofexilewiki.com/wiki/Bronn%27s_Lithe Bronn's Lithe]], named in honor of Tyrion's mercenary companion in Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire.*** There's also a Duelist passive with one-handed swords called "Water Dancing".** [[http://pathofexilewiki.com/wiki/Terminus_Est Terminus Est]], named after the protagonist's BFS from ''Literature/BookOfTheNewSun''--which, coincidentally, is also the name of an infamous Chaos spaceship in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''.** [[http://pathofexilewiki.com/wiki/Pillar_of_the_Caged_God Pillar of the Caged God]], a staff inspired by Sun Wukong's magic weapon from ''Literature/JourneyToTheWest''.** [[http://pathofexilewiki.com/wiki/Chernobog%27s_Pillar Chernobog's Pillar]], named after a deity mentioned in ''Videogame//{{Blood}}''.** [[http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Moonsorrow Moonsorrow]], whose flavor text haiku references Nightmare Moon's thousand-year banishment in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''.** [[http://pathofexilewiki.com/wiki/Infractem Infractem]], whose name is an anagram of ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'', was designed by none other than Notch himself, who even managed to work his first and last names, as well as his nickname, into the flavor text couplet:---> ''Mark us'' with mercy, then ''press on'' with care,\\Execute us steadily, ''notch'' away at our despair** [[http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Infernal_Mantle Infernal Mantle]], inspired by Utsuho Reiuji from ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'', and containing multiple references of her in the flavor texts..** Upon activating a Static Shrine, you get the message "[[Music/DepecheMode Reach out and touch hate]]".** The monster ''Hammerstorm'' attacks with spiraling glowy hammers, just like ''Diablo II's'' Hammerdin.** The unique map "[[http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Olmec%27s_Sanctum Olmec's Sanctum]]" is an extended Shout-Out to ''Series/LegendsOfTheHiddenTemple'', starting with its flavor text.---> They flew, and leapt, and clambered over,\\They crawled, and swam, and slithered under.\\Still its ancient secrets await unclaimed\\And of this hidden temple, only legends remain.** ''[[https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Hiltless Hiltless]]'' shares its name and properties with the same-named weapon in VideoGame/DemonsSouls.* SmokeOut: Possible with the ''Smoke Mine'' skill gem, which allows you to place up to five 'remote mines'. Upon detonation/activation, you're teleported to one of the mines you placed - the smoke clouds blind enemies both at your original position and near the mine itself, and you get a short boost to your run speed.* SocketedEquipment: Virtually all of the equipment items a player can find can have ability gems socketed into them. Even the skill tree can be socketed.* TheSouthpaw: The Templar is a lefty in game, as opposed to every other playable character.** It's worth noting that the Templar is considered a "blasphemer" by other Oriathans like Nessa. Since the other Templars aren't exactly upstanding individuals though, this doesn't necessarily imply ASinisterClue. * SpySpeak: Of a sort. Witches seem to know most other witches, but as being a witch is generally illegal in Oriath they call each other 'sister.' This habit stays true on Wraeclast even though it's not needed.* StoryBreadcrumbs: The "Weathered Carvings" explain why Wraeclast is abandoned, but does not immediately explain why EverythingIsTryingToKillYou. You'll figure that part out slowly as you approach the end of the main story campaign.* TeleportersAndTransporters: Just like in ''VideoGame/DiabloII'', there are static waypoints on every other location that have to be found and activated before you can use them to teleport from any one to any other. Also, the Portal Scrolls create single-use portals from anywhere to the town. Finally, there is also a skill gem that allows you to make town portals without using any portal scrolls.* TemporaryOnlineContent: Averted with in regards to unique Leagues. Most unique League content, such as Rogue Exiles and the Prophecy system, are added to the core game after their League ends, and even content that doesn't can usually still be found in Maps with the right modifiers.* TimedMission: Some of the missions of the Forsaken Masters are timed, especially a lot of Haku's missions. Unsurprisingly, they are often considered as ThatOneSidequest.** The Breachlord's domain raises the stakes UpToEleven. Gathering enough splinters to create the Breachstone is hard enough, but if you can't kill the enemies fast enough for the breach to expand to the Breachlord's boss arena or die, it collapses and you can't try again, even if you had portals remaining.* ThreeStatSystem: The game system is based around Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence, and the six core classes are mapped either to one or to two of these. The secret Scion class, being located in the very center of the skill board, has access to all three. * TokenReligiousTeammate: The Templar, who makes a point of praising the Almighty after every few level ups.* TreacherousQuestGiver: [[spoiler:Captain Fairgraves]] calls his ghostly flunkies and tries to kill you after you complete his FetchQuest.** In ''Fall of Oriath'', [[spoiler:Utula, one of your main allies in Act 5, turns out to be a Kitava zealot, and only wanted you to kill Avarius so he could summon his dark god and unleash his minions onto the weakened Theopolis.]]* TrueFinalBoss: The main story ends with the death of Malachai in Act 4, but having three difficulties means you are repeating the story three times. Since maps make up the end-game content of Path of Exile, The Shaper, who lies in the heart of the Atlas behind four of the highest level maps, can be considered one.* TwoGirlsToATeam: The Witch and the Ranger. Ultimately subverted by the later addition of the Scion.* UndergroundMonkey: With crabs, spiders, apes... including literal underground monkeys.* TheUnfought: Until the full release, High Templar Dominus and Malachi.* UnholyGround:** The entire continent of Wraeclast is, according to the lore, an unhallowed ground where the dead refuse to stay down, [[AdventureFriendlyWorld handily explaining the hordes of undead roaming the levels]].** You can create a more concentrated version with the Desecrate skill, which spawns desecrated ground that deals chaos damage over time to any enemy above it.* UnidentifiedItems: Scrolls of Identification double as PracticalCurrency.* UnscaledMerfolk: Sirens are based off the Scylla from Greek mythology; female upper body with a betentacled lower half.* VainSorceress: ** After discovering a serial killer was rumored to be 168 years old but looking young, Queen Atrizi had her [[CourtMage thaumuturgist]] Doryani do whatever it takes to find his secret. Not only were countless numbers of her people slaughtered, it's heavily implied it led to the ''destruction'' of her civilization.** Shavronne of Umbra was known for her vanity as much as much as she is known for her skill in thaumuturgy. If you take a look at her closer, you can see that the crown she's wearing is ''[[BodyHorror keeping her entire face stretched]]''.* WarriorPoet: There are poems scattered around the Labyrinth, written by one of its contenders. You'll find his body and his final poem just before the final fight.* WasOnceAMan: With the exception of the Beast itself, ''all'' of the [[spoiler: various gods]] in Wraeclast were, at one point, human beings. According to [[spoiler: Sin]], they became that way by [[spoiler: accumulating power and followers, but their ambitions to become gods caused them to slowly lose their humanity. Some, like Sin and Innocence, remained humanlike, but others, like the Brine King, were mutated into horrific, inhuman monsters]].* WeaponOfChoice: Each type of weapon requires different attributes and most have an inherent modifier.** ArcherArchetype: Bows require dexterity and can be used with quiver accessories, which frequently add elemental damage.** AnAxeToGrind: Axes require strength and small amounts of dexterity, are one or two-handed, and are one of the few categories without an inherent mod.** CoolSword: Swords other than rapiers require equal amounts of strength and dexterity and have increased accuracy.** DropTheHammer: Maces are one or two-handed, require only strength, and increase the length of time enemies are stunned. Scepters are always one-handed, require strength and intelligence, and increase the amount of elemental damage done by skills and weapon properties.** KnifeNut: Daggers are always one-handed, require intelligence and dexterity, and increase the chance of getting a CriticalHit. ** MagicWand: Wands are intelligence-based and the only ranged weapons other than bows. They always have an increased spell damage mod.** RoyalRapier: Rapiers require only dexterity, are always one-handed, and increase the damage of Critical Hits.** SimpleStaff: Staves require strength and intelligence, are always two-handed, and are the only two-handed weapons with a chance to block.** WolverineClaws: Claw weapons require dexterity and intelligence, are always one-handed, and have an inherent LifeDrain mod.** StatSticks: Wands, knives, scepters, and staves can generate with properties that increase spell damage, spell critical chance, or add elemental damage to spells.** You can also fight unarmed as a BareFistedMonk, though [[SelfImposedChallenge a very few physical skills works without a weapon]], but it's viable with the unique glove Facebreaker or Doryani's Fist, which gives you a monstrous damage boost while unarmed.* WorthlessYellowRocks: Frequently in dungeons a player will come across huge piles of gold and jewels, only to discover they're part of the background. Occasionally in the middle of these opulent piles there will be a giant treasure chest full of items. This ties the lore in with the gameplay -- gold has been entirely done away with, instead using a form of barter.* VestigialEmpire: See that island on the map of Act 1? That's Oriath, the last remnant of the Eternal Empire that once ruled Wraeclast.* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: ** The Shadow's intro shows that his employers sold him out after his last kill to save themselves, leading to him becoming an Exile.** As mentioned above, [[spoiler: Captain Fairgraves]] betrays you the moment you hand him his magic lantern.* YouWillNotEvadeMe: Brutus uses a hook to reel in players.* ZombieApocalypse: The wood etchings found in the Act 2 Crossroads are a description of this.----